Alexandra Bircken
Alexandra Bircken is a German artist based in Berlin and Munich. Bircken creates assemblages featuring everyday ephemera like wood, knitted fragments and twigs. Her work has strong references to traditional craft practices and to the natural world, from which she sources her materials.
Early life and education
Bircken was born in Cologne, Germany. She was brought up nearby in Remscheid. Her father was a motor engineer, but later worked for the weapons firm Mauser and Heckler & Koch. Bircken, who was part of Germany's peace movement, disliked this intensely and felt ashamed of her father.In secondary school, aged 15, Bircken became friends with Lutz Huelle and Wolfgang Tillmans. In 1992, Tillmans, who was studying photography at Bournemouth, used Bircken and Huelle in a fashion shoot called Like Brother and Sister published in i-D Magazine.
As a child, she wanted to become a surgeon, as she had issues with her intestines which made her interested in the body.
In 1991, Bircken moved to London to study for a BA in Fashion Design from Central Saint Martins, graduating in 1995. Whilst there, she lived in Brixton.
After graduating, Bircken founded a fashion label with a colleague, but quickly became frustrated with the restrictions of the fashion industry.
Career
Bircken's work explores the body, textiles, mechanics and feminism.From 2000-2008, Bircken taught at Central Saint Martins. Since 2018, she has been a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.
Bircken has been awarded artist residencies at Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, Studio Voltaire in London and the British Council in Harare, Zimbabwe.